How to Get an A in English

Getting an A in English is every student’s dream. This is because English forms one of the foundation courses in any discipline that students are pursuing. However, despite the elaborate teaching methods used by teachers to ensure that all students are equally covered, there is still a major performance gap. This is because most students do not seem to understand what it takes for someone to get an A in their respective courses. This is mainly driven by the tendency to treat language like any other subject, not knowing that it has special attributes regarding mastery. In this regard, to get an A in English demands one to polish their writing skills effectively, attain a good mastery of grammar, have wide vocabulary, and engage in constant revision.

Writing forms the first step towards enabling the student to internalize lessons in an English class. Students need to understand the different sentence structures are commonly in use. This will be important in developing their composition skills. In practice, there are long and short sentence structures; hence, the student will need to understand appropriate circumstances to apply both. At the beginner stage, students are advised to use short sentence structures. The next item in writing entails developing one’s capability to comprehend the meaning in sentences. Poor comprehension will automatically lead to poor writing. To do this, students need to practice writing the same sentence in different form. Once this is done, they need to evaluate the meaning contained in each of the sentences. This will enable them to incorporate the skills during actual writing of a passage. When the student reaches a stage in which one can comprehend the meaning derived from passages, they now need to master the different forms of writing formats. This will effectively polish their ability to write before they indulge in proper use of grammar.

Grammar forms an important component in demonstrating proper articulation of English language. In my own experience, grammar is the next challenging part where other students get it wrong. First, it is important to note that grammar requires one to adequately dedicate themselves to actual application of English in real life. Most of the time, students tend to use informal language in their social settings, which seriously degrades their ability to pass in English. Proper use of grammar requires one to apply what they write to real life. For example, if the students are from covering a lesson on use of preposition they need to go out there and practice it. Personally, I try as much as possible to speak grammatically appropriate English whenever I am engaging in a conversation. Indeed, practice makes perfect, because with time, I found that I was making less grammatical mistakes whenever there was an assessment. However, I soon discovered that I need to widen my scope of vocabulary so that I could apply proper grammar in different contexts.

Understanding vocabulary forms an important element in attaining an A in English. Most students tend to have a poor mastery of vocabulary. The first approach in enhancing one’s vocabulary is developing a good reading culture. This involves reading different forms of material such as newspapers, magazines, novels, history annals, and other scholarly material.  Widening the reading scope enables the student to understand different contexts under which certain vocabularies are used. Personally, I prefer reading fictional and non fictional novels because they are very descriptive and easy to understand. When reading these novels, students should make it a practice to note down new vocabularies that they come across. For every instance of vocabulary discovered, the student should deal with it instantaneously. This is because as the gets interesting, one may be captivated by the events such that they forget the check meanings of the vocabularies. Once the meaning has been derived, the students need to relate it to the specific passage from which it was derived. As time goes, by one’s vocabulary bank becomes enriched, but there is still need to promote effective revision practices.

Revision as the last step in safeguarding an A in English forms a core element in reviewing all the content covered during a specific learning period. Before beginning the revision process, one needs to prepare a program that will be followed to attain the desired outcome. The program needs to cover one concept or topic at a time. Covering multiple topics usually decreases the efficacy of the revision process. Next, learners need to ensure that they are covering the required number of topics within a stipulated time period. For example, personally, I used to prepare a weekly timetable in which I could allocate 1 hour of revision for each topic on a daily basis. In as much as one hour may have seemed insufficient, the cumulative amount of time added value to my understanding of English language. Moreover, during revision, the learners should give similar effort to English like they give to other subjects.

Finally, learners need to understand that adequate possession of writing skills, grammar, vocabulary, and practice of revision are necessary for one to attain an A in English. Theoretically, it may sound simple, but it is important for learners to infuse practice approaches in their learning process. The basic foundation of achieving effective understanding English is attaining the required writing skills. Avoiding grammatical errors entails practice while good mastery of vocabulary entails extensive reading. Finally, revision weaves together all the components into one integrated piece.